We know you rank in the top ten universities in the nation in terms of licensing revenue. What do you think has made the U of R so successful? Is that likely to continue?
I think most of the institutions that rank in the top ten nationally with regard to this kind of revenue, are usually focused on a few very successful technologies that have just been homeruns. But that happens because we have a solid base of research activities and tech commercialization activities that allows for opportunities to hit. In the case of the University of Rochester, the areas we have been most successful in at the medical center have been around vaccine technologies, and we've been extraordinarily successful there. Then in the college there have been some engineering technologies, particularly something called blue noise mask, which is a technology that pretty much is embedded in every computer printer out there right now.
In addition to the cervical cancer vaccine, what has been your number one success?
Our main success to date has been with the homophonous influenza and with the vaccine that deals with streptococcal meningitis. Those went through a start-up company called Praxis and eventually got to both Wyeth and American Home Products, and have been on the market for a number of years. It has had good success both in the U.S. and internationally. And that's been the principal source of our patent revenue. The human papilloma virus vaccine, which is the cervical cancer vaccine that you're referring to, is just starting to take off now and we certainly are optimistic that this will keep us in the upper ranks of institutions generating patent royalty revenues.
How does the university decide whether to license a technology to an established company or to a startup?
I think its multi-factorial. There's just not a single decision point. It depends upon whether or not there are other resources and investment interests on the part of entrepreneurs in taking something to a startup or whether or not we see very aggressive activity on the part of large pharmaceutical companies who are ready to move a product much more quickly to market. So our objective is actually to get our technologies into the marketplace and to get some societal benefit out of it. Whenever the option seems fairly balanced, we would probably tilt towards starting up a company because we really do feel a very strong commitment to the local economy and economic development. We would like to see as many of our technologies as possible rooted here with companies and jobs being created in the Rochester area as a result of that.
How would you compare U of R to other universities in terms of your company start-up record?
We have a good start-up record, averaging somewhere between three and four companies a year. And on the basis of our funded research levels we are being reasonably productive when you compare us to other institutions around the country. So this is one of those pound-for-pound kind of analyses. Looking at our research base, that is a fairly productive level of company creation.
If someone wanted to learn more about or invest in a technology available for licensing from the U of R, how would they go about that?
There are a couple of ways of doing it. First of all if you go to the technology transfer Website that's part of the university, you will see information on the technologies that are available for licensing. I think the first step you would take would be to actually make contact with our licensing officers in the technology transfer office. We have right now in the range of the medical center alone, somewhere in the vicinity of about 300 technologies that are active, and most of those are still available for licensing. So we would be very open to inquiries from people who are in the venture capital world or elsewhere who are interested in looking at our technologies.
 We have a solid base of research activities and tech commercialization activities that allows for opportunities to hit.” |
With the WIRED initiative, $13 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to encourage entrepreneurship and training in the workplace, can you tell us how local companies might engage with these strategies?
As chair of the WIRED board, I would say that the principal focus is talent development. So a lot of what you're seeing in the technology commercialization front is the education of people to be better positioned to contribute to this process of commercializing, starting up companies, or picking up companies and moving them to the next level. A master's degree in commercialization at the University of Rochester is designed to train people to more effectively do market assessments in order to determine the viability of technologies for various commercialization strategies and provide input to business plans. There are also forums designed to provide entrepreneurs and inventors with a bit more experience and exposure to what it takes to get a company off the ground and get it started. For example, how to access SBIR funding or workshops on how to do business plans and that kind of thing.
WIRED is also spending a great deal of time gearing itself towards preparing a workforce for existing companies that are having a hard time either transitioning to new products or advancing their technologies. So a good deal of what we're seeing here also is targeted incentives to educational institutions to partner with business sectors in order to prepare a workforce that's really needed by local companies. One area of focus is going to be the high-tech manufacturing side of things because while broader manufacturing is certainly leaving the area at a rapid rate, the kind of very refined and sophisticated high-technology manufacturing is in fact still a strength in this community and the region. The tool and die industry here is also a strength and is one of the better tool and die groupings that exist anywhere in the country. We actually do have a very strong cadre of these kinds of companies. Rochester is more of a high-tech community than most people realize. I do believe in regard to the manufacturing base, while it has a business base that's international, that being rooted here in Rochester does actually help.
And WIRED is also getting involved in the middle and high schools, to teach them about entrepreneurship at a young age?
Right. One of the things that we're starting to do is take the local stem initiative that's based at Nazareth College and looking for ways to more effectively bring that to the high school and middle school level as you just pointed out. And I think that really is a way of exposing students at a younger age to career options and to academic pursuits that link them more to math, science, and engineering where they can actually be a very important component of the local workforce.
How do you expect the University's role in regional economic development to change in the next five years?
I think since President Seligman's appointment as president and even during the search process where we defined the importance of the university's linkage to the community in a variety of ways, it is more vital than ever. Joel has really woken up the university internally and also made us aware of many of the things that we're doing that have not been as visible. But I believe that the commitment both to integration with the community, interacting with the community, and contributing to economic development is an inextricable part of the university's future. And the medical center, because of its size, is probably going to be at the forefront of that effort.
Can you speak more specifically about startups?
I just will mention that we are continuing to launch start-ups and I think since 2000 there have been 20 that we have opened up and within the next week or so there will be another one coming out which we are very excited about. The ones that have been launched a few years ago are starting to show success. We do cite VirtualScopics very often and iCardiac is obviously is a good example. Also, Vaccinex which has been out there for a while. These are great examples of companies where initially they start out as the one to ten employee companies. They're usually high paying jobs and they will grow. VirtualScopics has grown now to 60 employees or more. That kind of steady growth is going to be key to the future of our community's economy.
BSM